Gabrielle, Chiefest and greatest of all calamities
by Alexander Eolo
Summary: What happen if Gabrielle, instead of the Titans, awoke Smaug the magnificent?. Xena x Gabrielle
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Xena: Warrior Princess or any of its protagonists, same goes for the giant lizard that appears in this story, i don't own him either unfortunately

 **AN:** I hope with all my heart that you will truly enjoy this story. Please this is just an idea I had, but if you don't see a life for this story then tell me, so I won't waste my time on it, please. At least if you like the story give me some feedback so that I may know!

 _We were a family. How'd it break up and come apart, so that now we're turned against each other? Each standing in the other's light. How'd we lose that good that was given us? Let it slip away. Scattered it, careless. What's keepin' us from reaching out, touching the glory? – The Thin Red Line_

Chapter 1 / Prologue

"That's a Dorian chant, she's using Eonian rhythms"

The whole crowd turned, to look at the young voice who had spoken. There, just near the entrance of the cave was a small girl, dressed in a simple orange skirt and a white dress.

Immediately Gabrielle felt a little bit uneasy, finding herself in the center of attention, but then again, she was a bard after all, she should be used to it, and soon the uneasiness was replaced with purpose, and she made her way to the young couple of guys in front of the crowd, confidence building in herself.

"I made quite the study of this" further explained the strawberry blond girl, with a soft voice, when she reached the surprised teen.

"Shall I try?" she finally asked to the young guy, who quickly reached for the ancient scroll, offering it to the girl, that soon started reading it in the proper way.

"ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ

πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσεν:

πολλῶν δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω"

"you see, you just put the emphasis on the first syllable" explained the Bard, proud of her knowledge, but as soon as the last word left her mouth, the smile on her face disappeared, for the cave was filled with a rumbling sound that seemed to be shaking the very foundation of the earth.

A mighty roar escaped from the depths of the cavern, echoing on the walls, almost deafening all the presents. People started to sought comfort and security from one another but it was clear in their eyes that whatever they were up to before, was not happening, something wasn't going per plane, and soon the firsts men, almost subconsciously had taken the first steps toward the exit of the cave. Surely of the all bunch our bard was the most confused and frightened, not having but a single clue of what was happening. Soon the initial shock was wearing off, replaced by fear and anxiety, and immediately more people followed the example of the guys who had taken the first steps towards safety until more and more men had their back turned from the sound and as a wave were starting to run away from the devilry hiding inside, all but one girl were now running for their lives, but not Gabrielle, for she was terrified beyond reason by the creature who she had a brief glimpse of, but soon had disappeared behind the dirt that was raised from the floor.

And then everything got quiet, a deafening silence preannouncing the storm that was to come. And the storm came, when, from the ground a creature so immense and powerful emerged, disrupting what was left of the floor, red was the color of such creature, the size seemed to be like the one of a mountain, Gabrielle couldn't see the end of the appalling creature standing before her, not in her most vivid dream she could believe in something like that, a true force of nature. She had just glimpses of it, for it was so big that the cave wasn't fit to hold him and soon she realized that as well when the first pieces of the rocky roof started to fall all around here until the creature stopped and Gabrielle realized with a throb that a pair of reptilian eyes where starring at her, lights that seemed to be emanating from them.

The creature stilled and stared right into those frightened green eyes before him, and Gabrielle realized she never was this scared, she feared for her life, she now knew that the thing before her was a sentient and intelligent creature and behind those eyes she could see evil in the most primordial form. Pure, and beautiful, no this was no mindless best she thought and in that precise moment she understood that such a force of nature was not going to be stopped by anything or anyone.

Then the creature spoke

"Well... and who are you, little thing, may I assssk?" a snake like tongue and a thunderous voice who had shaken the wall of the cave, along with her very soul.

"I uhm, I'm Gabrielle" finally answered the shaken girl, barely managing to string a few words together to make sense

"I ssee, _Gabrielle_ " purred the creature, trying the sound of her name, successfully sending chills to the girl, and then continued "you are a small creature, _Gabrielle_ , I met a ssmal thing like you once... a barrel rider"

"you don't happen to know him now, do you?"

"I… who...? I don't even know wh- "

"no, I suppose you don't" interrupted the giant creature

"and you don't even smell like him, yet you are about the same heights, do tell me, what are you?"

"I'm... I'm a human?" answered hesitantly the poor bard

"a human? This small"

"would you please stop that?"

"what did you say?!"

"nothing, nothing!" immediately tried to recover the blond girl "and to whom do I have the honor to speak?" she asked, quickly changing topic

"I'm Smaug the magnificent, king under the mountain… Which reminds me, where are your dwarf friendss? Where are you hiding them?"

"dwarves...?" questioned Gabrielle, with a hint of surprise and confusion, mixed with the fear

"there are no dwarves here"

"you people are so short with fantasy, always the same lame answer"

Once again Gabrielle did her best to ignore the pun, meant it or not and tried to find her way out of this one in the only way she could: talking.

* * *

Screams of fear and desperation reached the ear of the Warrior Princess just when she was about to dismount her horse, immediately she unsheathed her sword and run towards the small crowd running a few dozen paces away from here, when she reached the group she was barely able to stop them from their crazed run, to question them.

* * *

"and that's how we become friends and started to fight evil together"

"fascinating! Maybe I won't eat you after all" exclaimed Smaug, still after listening to the girl's stories, and still toying a bit with her

"oh…that's good... I think?"

"of course, and how are you planning to fight me?" he hissed, showing his teeth, that were the size of the bard.

"I uhm, I don't – "

"exactly my thoughts" he smiled, content of himself

"now if you'll excuse me I'll go find something to eat, I'm starving after all"

"oh and mind me, you are still alive because you are just too much fun for me, but if when I return you are not here I will burn everything to the ground from here to the white city."

"white city...? no wait! You cannot go out!" exclaimed the desperate bard, causing a fit of rage to escape the red beast.

"and WHO you think you are to tell ME what to do, little thing?" thundered the immense creature, raising his spears like finger that were followed by _wings_ , the bard thought, _that thing can fly? Oh, by the gods this is just great, Xena's going to kill me this time, which is funny considering the situation... gods his breath stinks_. In fact, the enraged dragon's face was so close to Gabrielle that she could see the smaller details, surprisingly finding out that between his many scales were stuck many pieces of jewelry and coins

"please, please, please just wait listen to me" begged the poor bard, minds working as fast as she could to save the day, and possibly the whole planet

"look" she started, an idea forming and a grin finding his way on her face "if you wait for me here I'll bring you the best food you can find within 300 leagues from here, deal?"

"and if I don't come back you can burn everything to the ground, ok?"

"you never cease to amaze me" he said, with a grin on his monstrous snout

"but know this" he continued "if what you bring me is not satisfying you'll be the side dish"

She thought about it for nothing but a moment

"seems fair" she said, and started to take a few steps back, hesitantly "I'll be back" she then blurted out just to say something, and then headed for the entrance of the cave.

As soon as the sunlight touched her face again she sent a prayer to every single god she knew on Olympus and started to think of what to do now, _I can't believe this is happening, I must deal with a god be damned dragon waiting in that cave, why did I have to read that scroll, by the gods what else could go wrong!?_

"Gabrielle!" Exclaimed a worried Xena, sword in hands, running towards the bard

 _Oh, gods, oh this is just great, why can't I just shut up… what I'm going to do now, what will I tell her? hey Xena I think I just have awaken a dragon, have any idea of how to fix that?_

 _Oh, gods here she come_

"Gabrielle are you all right? What is going on here?" Asked the warrior Princess, glaring at the bard with a questioning look, enforced by the risen eyebrow.

"I, uhm, Xena I might have awoken a dragon"

 _WHAT?_

"WHAT?" repeated her thought an aghast Xena

 _Oh, the gods I can't believe I just said that like that! Come on Gabrielle you can do better than this_

"he might be bigger than Potidaea itself" she mentally facepalmed herself

"and he also talks" _genius Gabrielle, genius_

"Gabrielle what are you talking about? Have you hit your head? Gabrielle look at me, are you actually saying the truth?" when blue met green eyes, only regret was found in the last ones

"I swear Xena, I'm sorry I didn't me-" she was then interrupted by the warrior princess

"it's ok Gabrielle, is it actually this big and dangerous?"

"yes..." she finally answered faintly

"it's ok, I'm not mad at you I'm just… oh well first thing first, is there something else I should know?"

"well actually…" started the bard, but stopped when she received an annoying look from piercing blue eyes

"I wasn't being serious"

"but with the luck we have he might as well have wings and fly" half joked Xena, trying to lighten the mood but when she was met with no answer her grin turned into a frown

"I wasn't even… by the gods Gabrielle couldn't you awake something less…lethal? I don't know, a titan or something?"

"also I'm supposed to bring him dinner"

"you never cease to amaze me Gabrielle" sarcastically stated that warrior princess

"he said that too"

 **AN:** about the chant Gabrielle is reading in the story, if you know ancient Greek or you google the translation you will find out that indeed it is not a chant to awake a dead dragon from another universe, but something else entirely. This is mainly due to the fact that I actually do not know any chant to achieve such results so I just had to improvise, as Gabrielle would say, best I could do!

Also, forgive me for any spelling mistake!


	2. Chapter 2

**An:** if you guys want me to continue this story please let me know in the reviews, this way I'll try to give you more regular updates for this story as well. Deal? Here is the second chapter anyway

There will be a relationship between two women here, nothing graphic, but if you don't like this concept then be advised

Any feedback or review is always welcome!

Chapter 2: Priorities

"so, where is this mighty beast, Gabrielle" asked sarcastically the Warrior Princess, once they reached the infamous cave, a wagon of food behind them. They took a few steps towards the entrance of the cave

"he was supposed to be here, Xena… he's gone!"

"I'm sure he just went out for a walk" she grinned, teasing the poor bard in front of her "or a flight, I don't know…" she continued, raising an eyebrow, smiling at the blond girl

"it's not funny!" exclaimed the enraged Gabrielle who quickly tried to compose herself

"you don't believe me, do you"

The Warrior Princess softened her expression, looking at her bard, a glimpse of compassion in her eyes "I believe you are telling me the truth, yet maybe what you saw wasn't real, perhaps was just a trick of the Gods"

"Come on Gabrielle, let's get out of here"

They walked out of the cave in each other's arms, with Xena trying to cheer up the saddened bard, yet when they reached the entrance of the cave the food wagon was gone, and it wasn't just the food on it, it was the whole thing. Xena's expression turned drastically from an amused one to one of pure disbelief.

"Gabrielle" she started slowly

"what? you still wanna make fun of me? "the dejected bard said, raising her eyes from the ground

"hey, where's the wagon?" she asked, not really paying attention to Xena

"well, apparently is gone" Xena stated the obvious with a sarcastic look

"surely it can't just disappear like that, I mean…oh" she halted herself midsentence when she realized the situation

"Xena…I believe we are watched" quietly whispered the bard

"I know…"

Suddenly a thunderous voice froze the two of them in position, a voice coming from behind them, on top of the entrance of the cave, they slowly turned to face the terrific owner of such powerful voice, for the first time with there was a bit of hesitation and fear in the Warrior Princess' movements

"well little thing, who is your _friend_ there, what is her business here?" he asked, slowly creeping closer to the ground, moving his giant head and wings closer to the couple.

It was so close, it was so damn close for Xena to pass out just there, just then. Luckily our warrior managed to stay conscious saving her face, but the color was all gone leaving her a pale white; it took her a while to find words once again

"I'm Xena, Gabrielle's friend, and where she goes I go" she boldly stated and dared to continue "and whom do I have the honor to speak?"

The dragon lowered himself to the ground, slightly turning his head for a better view of the dark woman, familiarizing with her smell and look

"Xena; what a curiouss name you got there" he hissed and then continued "I'm sure this little girl of yours already introduced me to you but in case you don't know, I'm Smaug the Magnificent" he stated proudly, raising himself to his maximus, leaving the two women astonished for his majesty

"last of my kind on this middle earth" he added looking from afar at the two small figures several feet below him, on the ground, but luckily the Warrior Princess with her keen hearings managed to hear that as well

"this middle earth you speak of, where is it, where are you from?" she had to shout that to be heard by the creature above her

He was surprised for a beat but soon descended to the woman menacingly

"that is not of your concern, human" he cut short "although I'd like to know where am I right now, for I have travelled for thousands of years yet I've never been in such place"

The two women exchanged a quick confused glance, then the bard took her chance to speak once again

"we are in Greece, and we've never heard of middle earth, is it beyond the great sea?"

If Smaug was surprised by that he didn't show it, but behind those raging eyes was hidden a sea of thoughts and worries, for the first time the great dragon didn't know what was going on, he didn't know where he was and was lost, his past was still bugging him and he'd discarded hundreds of theories already about his current situation, he briefly thought that his only hope to learn more lied in the two pathetic humans below him, and it was infuriating to depend on such lesser creatures

Suddenly an idea formed in his mind and without a word he took off in the blue sky, leaving the warrior and the bard far behind, in the distant ground

They stood there, hands covering their eyes from the intense light of the sun, watching the dragon leave the ground in a beat and soon becoming a dot in the sky. After a few moments of surprise, they looked at each other not really believing the reality of their situation

They faced one another for a while until the bard spoke, a small grin forming in her lips

"so, do you believ-"

"no shut up Gabrielle" she cut short, glaring at the poor bard with a cold look, pointing a finger at her

"oh come on Xena, I'm sure you can deal with that! I bet you already have a plan in this mind of yours" she said, raising her hand to move away the finger Xena was using to poke her, and tried to lighten the mood a bit

"I'm sure the mighty warrior princess can deal with an oversized lizard"

"making a lot of assumptions here" she answered with just a bit of sass

"we can do it"

"have you seen the size of that thing" the warrior princess asked, pointing at the sky, in the direction the dragon had left

"Xena…" she said, leaving the rest of the phrase hanging, waiting for the other women response

"what"

"I'm hungry"

At that the Warrior Princess looked at the bard as she had grown a second head and it took her a few seconds to come up with a proper response, such was her surprise

"Gabrielle" she started, trying to calm herself and not go out on the bard

"we have a giant lizard the size of Amphipolis, who can breathe fire, flying the Gods know where in this very moment, and who could very well burn Athens, Rome and Alexandria to the ground and still have the afternoon off, and that's what bothers you?!"

As for an answer the bard's stomach decided to grunt in protest at that precise moment, leaving Xena speechless

"fish is good?"

"fish is good"

"Let's go fishing"

And so, without any other words they headed for a nearby lake, hoping to catch some fish

 _What is this place, I have never been in such lands, where am I, who did this to me,_ Smaug thought, enraged, he had been flying nonstop in the hope of finding anything that felt remotely familiar to him yet failed at it

He had been in a confused state since his awakening, his last memory was of that little scrawny human who dared to defy him and the miserable people of Laketown with their long bows and black arrows

He felt the fire raising inside him at the thoughts of them, yet kept flying

He was supposed to be death, he knew that deep inside, the arrow had pierced his heart and he was falling to the ground, yet here he was, and very much alive nonetheless

At first he thought to be in some kind of afterworld, or hell, yet something told him he was still in the lands on this side of the sea, among the livings

Maybe it was some kind of different world but the implications of that were frighteningly big, and he dared not to think of them, not yet at least

He thought back of the small woman who awoke him, he knew that for sure, she was somehow responsible for this but he didn't know how or why, sure it didn't seem to him that the girl was working for the evil forces, perhaps the other one was, he briefly considered, the image of the Warrior Princess quickly passing in his mind, but it mattered not. He quickly discarded it and continued his travel

He realized in fact that in any other situation the two puny mortals would have been already ashes but the situation he was in forced him to stop is blood lust for a bit, to gain more information possible

After a while he gave up on his quest and decided to head back where he had left the two women

Upon his landing, he didn't see the humans, yet his tracking skills were perfected in thousands of years and after taking off once again he easily tracked them without any problem.

At first he looked at the spotted couple from above, hovering around the few clouds large enough to at least partially conceal him, then with a half grin he descended in a valley far away, hidden from the view of the lake and made sure to land softly on the ground; he stalked towards his pray with a feline like movement, and despite his great mass was still able to emit no sounds, after a bit his keen hearing could pick up the conversation between the two women

"is that so?" the Warrior Princess was asking to the blond one.

They were sitting closely, near the lake, the remaining of their food, forgotten in the frying pan; he could smell it from there

Xena's eyes were only for the bard, not noticing the rather large intruder watching them from afar, hidden by the landscape

For once they had forgotten all their problem and where enjoying each other's company

"obviously" she dared to answer, impudently

At that, the Warrior Princess grinned for a beat, but then focused her attention on something else, changing into a worried expression. Immediately the bard tried to follow Xena's line of sight but couldn't see anything, she tried to focus more but with a sudden move she found herself looking very closely at the dirt when the warrior decided to tackle her out of nowhere, and so she found herself on the ground with the Warrior Princess shouting in victory while sitting on her back

"so this answer your question" she gloated "a Warrior Princess beats an amazon queen apparently" she grinned, starring at the back of her companion, who shouted in protest

"you tricked me!"

"and you fell for it!" she retorted without losing a beat

" _but you_ tricked me!" she repeated again in disdain

She stopped fighting against the stronger warrior until she felt Xena relax and immediately took her chance for turning the tables around

In one swift move, she hooked the Warrior Princess' leg and pushed it away causing Xena to lose her balance and managed to turn herself while at the same time using the momentum to push the taller woman into the ground, only this time she found herself starring at those piercing blue eyes of her, for she has landed on her back and Gabrielle was right on top of her, half taken by surprise by her own quick success

She froze there, green eyes captured by the blue ones, until almost unconsciously she lowered herself to the ground to capture Xena's lips in a kiss that lasted for just a beat, for the Warrior Princess immediately reacted, shoving the bard to the ground and taking her former place

The bard was left speechless for a beat, pressed under the weight of the Warrior Princess she felt powerless and almost screamed in surprise when she felt Xena's lips hovering close to her neck, with a tickling sensation that sent chills through her spine

Xena was about to do some more when something else this time actually got her attention and hastily pulled the bard from the ground

Gabrielle turned confused for a moment until she found the cause of Xena's concern; she raised her hand shyly to the vicious Dragon before her, who obviously had returned


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Xena always considered Gabrielle to be the most stubborn creature on this earth, she had good reasons to believe that, indeed Gabrielle was the kind of girl that when she put something on her mind no force on the planet could ever stop her, but now she was strongly reconsidering it after talking for the last half an hour to the huge scaly dragon before her; trying to convince Smaug that there was no places such as Dale, or a lonely mountain or even this middle earth he talked about so much. None of this was familiar to her and she was running out of ways to explain it to the dark creature stomping around like some spoiled child, although it had to be handled a little more carefully, for such "child" could easily raze Athens to the ground for a whim, _and a decent portion of the lands across the sea_ , the warrior princess added in her line of thoughts. All in all it was a mess, and a big one. After a while she just gave up and passed the baton to the bard.

She found herself looking at the cause of all this trouble, this little blond girl with emerald green eyes, now shouting at the fierce Dragon and pointing a finger menacingly at him. trying to reason with the beast, not even considering how small she was compared to the creature and how easy it would be for him to just vaporize her in an instant. Yet there she was, still yelling recklessly at the beast and that caused a grin to form on Xena's lips. She briefly thought about saving Gabrielle before she would provoke the beast beyond what was wise, but instead found herself unable to take her eyes off of her, unable to move; she was powerless.

Gods she loved this little girl, she was so beautiful, she was in love with every inch of her (although there weren't many), she studied every detail, every part of the small bard pouncing in front of her, uncaring of the danger. After staring at some inappropriate body parts she snapped back into reality when the dragon was starting the fire in his belly no doubt to burn the bard into ashes and so, she immediately took action, hastily covering the bard's mouth with her hands and shouting to the enraged Dragon.

"Wait!" She yelled, not really knowing what to do next, and quickly put on an awkward smile while thinking something else to add to save their lives.

"I know how to take you back to your lands." She blurted out, regretting it half a second later, but that stilled the Dragon nonetheless and she had time to breath. She slowly removed her hand from the bard's mouth, who was sending her an hateful glare, and continued.

"Yes, and you must trust me on this one, but we need some time to prepare everything, ok?" She dared to ask, closing one eye while waiting for his answer and at the same time hoping not to be burnt alive on the spot. When no fire came, she dared to look up at Smaug, who had been pondering her words. The fire crawling inside him seemed to dwell down and Xena released a breath she didn't know was holding but tensed up once again when the creature lowered his head on the same level of the two women.

"You have two days, fail and I will annihilate you and every living being on this lands!" He said, and with that he took off like a hurricane, ruffling their hair with the wind of his wings and raising dust from the ground, causing a few coughs to the couple.

After the wind gusts ceased the pair exchanged an intense look before Gabrielle broke the silence.

"Soo… wanna enlighten me on how you plan to send that thing back from where it came from?" She said in one breath to the Warrior Princess.

"Not a clue!" She simply answered with a shrug and then proceeded to walk away, leaving a confused and astonished bard staring at her back.

"Wait!" She yelled, quickly catching up to her friend after a light jog.

"What you mean not a clue? I mean Xena, you must have a plan, an idea." She asked slightly out of breath, but the Warrior Princess simply scrolled her head.

"A guess…?"

"Nope." The Dark haired women answered to her friend, in a calm voice.

"Xena, what are we gonna do then?" The bard asked almost hysterically. She had to wait in silence for a while, watching the warrior pace back and forth before receiving her answer.

"Firsts thing firsts, I wanna take a look at the scroll you've read, let's see if there's anything there that can help us, then we'll see."

The bard relaxed a bit at that and after some walking they reached the entrance of the cave, both women lost in their own thoughts. The Warrior Princess motioned for the bard to go ahead and immediately followed her inside the cave. Once they entered it, they discovered it to be left in a mess, for a big part of it had come down after Smaug rushed outside. They exchange a worried glance to each other and after a bit of searching their worries were justified, as they weren't able to find the ancient scroll under the layers of fallen rocks and debris.

"I can't see anything here, Xena." The blond girl admitted in defeat.

"I know but let's keep searching."

"It's no use Xe-"

"all right I got it!" The Warrior Princess snapped at her, slightly annoyed by Gabrielle stating the obvious once again and not really helping. After her snap, an awkward silence had fallen down on the couple and Xena immediately regretted her small outburst.

"Look I'm sorry." She said, trying to fix her mistake.

"It's ok Xe." The bard immediately answered, looking compassionately at the taller woman, reaching for her hand "maybe we could ask Aphrodite?" She guessed

"You know it's better to leave our Gods out of this if we can, beside, we can't just go to her and say – hey Aphrodite, Gabrielle was just goofing around as always and she evoke a giant dragon from another world accidentally, have any ideas on how to fix that?" She said mocking the bard, with a grin on her lips

"Ha ha very fun- hey! What you mean goofing around?" She asked pretending to be mad but failing miserably.

"What about Hercules?" She blurted out, her eyes brightened for a moment.

"Pretty sure it's too much even for him." Xena answered again, leaving a disappointed bard behind. They headed outside the cave only to find an enraged God of War standing there with his arms crossed.

"Speaking of Gods…" Xena whispered sarcastically to herself, and reached the God, with Gabrielle close behind.

"What brings you here, Ares?". Xena Shouted, concerned about the sudden presence of the God of War.

"What brings me her?" He repeated astonished "Well let's see what brings me here." He pretended to think about it for a moment before continuing "I was minding my own damn business, just a few villages away, you know starting wars and all." He pointed at the sky behind him with a theatrical hand gesture "When suddenly this… devilry… came crushing down from the sky, oh and it must have been hungry, because apparently it took my army for some kind of snack!" He yelled enraged.

"Now I know you are behind this, I don't know what you are playing but you need to stop this madness now!" When he finished yelling at the Warrior Princess he was almost red in his face.

"Well first of all it wasn't my fault but hers." She motioned at the little girl half hiding behind her.

"What!?" Gabrielle yelled in surprised but couldn't add anything else for the Warrior Princess spoke again, ignoring her reaction.

"And secondly, we're already trying, so if you don't have anything else to cry about…" She motioned for the man, or rather… God…, to leave, in a very clear hand gesture, but only ended up getting the tall God quite mad. He thought about a cunning answer for the Warrior Princess but when he found none decided to give up on his fight, and after staring glacially at Xena, disappeared in a flash of light.

The couple stood there in silence, eased by the quick disappearance of the God of War. Xena was glad for this unexpected moment of peace but it wasn't destined to last, for her pesky companion was glaring coldly at her from the top of all her 5 feet and a spit. She held her gaze for a while before giving up, raising her arms.

"All right what is it?" She asked, annoyed.

"You told Ares it was my fault!" She blurted out bewildered, after a brief hesitation.

"But it was." Xena simply explained, unnerving the bard even more.

"Yes…but…" For once the bard was out of words, although it didn't last long, for after a short pause she pointed an accusatory finger at the Warrior Princess.

"Yes, but there was no need to tell him!" She exclaimed, partially enraged by Xena easiness over the situation.

"Gabrielle, we have to deal with one giant dragon that can spit fire and raze cities to the ground, I'm confident this problem should be way lower in our list of priorities." She tried to reason with the short girl, but ultimately failed at that when it appeared clear that Gabrielle was giving her the 'silent treatment'.

"Ok, I'm sorry." Xena had to admit in defeat, giving up again on the bard

"You feel better now?" She tried to ask a bit more gently, successfully shaking away the bad mood from the bard, who was now smiling at her.

"In fact, yes I do." Gabrielle proudly answered to the warrior and went back into her chatty mood.

"you know… I still think we should ask help to the big guy" She stated confidently, completely missing Xena's eyeroll and amused expression.

"All right, let's go find him" Xena finally agreed and smiled when she saw Gabrielle's green eyes, sparkling from the excitement, still not completely believing that Xena was actually listening to her for once and so they went on, on the road to find Hercules. The bard wasted no time and immediately started talking about the big man's adventures, with Xena silently listening, as she'd often do, while the bard was absorbed in the stories she was telling.

Unfortunately Xena already knew many of those tales, although some were slightly exaggerated. She smiled when in one of those stories, as she was there as well, fighting side by side with Hercules, the bard spoke about evil winged creatures which she had no memory of, nor she remembered any six armed man taking part in that fight for all that matter, but didn't interrupt the bard, as she was completely absorbed by her own story. Every now and then she'd grunt back to the blonde girl just to let her know she was still there, alive and listening to her story, maybe a couple of times going as far as throwing in a couple of words, but the bard was perfectly content anyway and so was Xena, in fact, she felt complete once again with this annoying creature walking side by side with her, telling her stories she didn't even know she had witnessed in person.

By the time Gabrielle was worryingly running low on her reserve of stories they decided to call in a day and made camp for the night to come. After sending Gabrielle to collect some wood she started hunting for dinner and luckily she didn't need to go far, for rather soon she had found a couple of rabbits who met the wrong end of her Chackram. Quickly weighting them she considered them to be enough for the night and headed back to camp where she found the bard miserably trying to start the fire and failing at that. She smiled at her efforts, hiding in the darkness of the trees, before a sly thought entered her mind. She snickered while silently heading for the other side of camp; stalking her pray in the shadow until she was exactly behind her, where she wanted to be.

She made her move quick and ruthlessly, in a heartbeat she left her safe hideout in the trees to cover the short distance from the campfire and like a predator bounced on her unfortunate pray. What followed was not what she had expected, although it wasn't clear what else she could have expected. It happened that the bard, completely taken by surprise, decided to scream on top of her lungs when creepy cold hands reached her shoulders and in her panic tried to do a half somersault while sitting on the ground, only to fall flat on the grass mid motion in all her clumsiness, and at the same time, somehow managed to bring Xena down with her, who roughly followed her on the cold ground. While Xena had the luck to use the shorter woman as a pillow, the other one wasn't as lucky, as she ended up sandwiched between the ground and a full armored warrior.

"Oh my God are you all right?" Asked a worried Xena to the poor human being under her.

"Xena…?" It took her a moment to clear her mind and understand the situation, although the reaction after the realization was rather fast and abrupt.

"Xena what the fuck?!" The bard all but yelled in rage, adrenaline still pumping in her veins from the scare. She tried to calm her breath and almost punched the dark warrior when she heard her laughs.

"What are you laughing at now?" She spit out to the other woman, who kept laughing before answering.

"You" It was just a word, just three letters, but she suddenly stopped laughing and turned serious for an instant, her eyes scanning for the green one's of the bard, that where trying to avoid the lock at all costs until they gave up and Gabrielle looked above her, where blue eyes met the green and they lingered for nothing but a moment before Xena slowly descended towards the bard's lips to place a soft kiss which only lasted a beat but felt like a lifetime.


End file.
